Thinking Cap

Thinking Cap is an evolving series of inquiries into the creative processes of experimental artists, musicians and personalities. It's an open-ended journey through the circuitry of the inspired.

Artists all have their rituals for getting into the heat of their energy. Hemingway would stop working when he had a good idea to save some motivation. Gertrude Stein would only work for 30 minutes each day. Mark Mothersbaugh gets up at 3am to draw every morning. Some people need a certain room or a certain outfit or need to get naked. The Thinking Cap, outfitted with a POV camera, captures that process with all the shakes, swoops and cries of victory in real time.

Share something about your creative process with us on Instagram, Vine or Twitter. We'll keep an eye out and send treats to the creators who catch our eye.

@acehotel + #athinkingcap

Sword + Fern with Kerby Ferris

Two of the most beautiful wingnuts we know permitted us a brief glimpse into their collaborative, poetic, finely tuned and deeply nuanced creative process. Emily Baker of Sword + Fern and sound artist Kerby Ferris — together they form Lavender Mirror — bend molecules to their will, help Uncle Larry make sense of it all, and love each other beyond measure.

Evan B. Harris

Evan B. Harris is an illustrator, painter, musician and the dad of a cat. He painted one of the first murals at Ace Hotel Portland on SW Stark, when we dropped down the I-5 a decade or so ago to set up our second camp. Five years later he's returned to continue his work. We blackmailed him into wearing a hat with a camera on it while he worked — at home, at the hotel and in the psychedelic recesses of his giant brain...

Mark Mothersbaugh

Journey into the alchemical mind of Mark Mothersbaugh — cofounder of Devo, pioneer of flagrant weirdness, maker of children's music and collector of superannuated musical fire hazards — with the latest installation of our Thinking Cap. As our artist-in-residence at Ace Hotel & Swim Club, Mr. Mothersbaugh put on a few shows we invited him to do, and a handful of ones we didn't.